A new method for determining plasma parameters from beam current transients resulting from short pulse 1+ injection of metal ions into a charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source has been developed. The proposed method relies on few assumptions, and yields local values for the ionisation times 1 / n e σ v q → q + 1 inz , charge exchange times 1 / n 0 σ v q → q − 1 cx , the ion confinement times τ q , as well as estimates for the minimum plasma energy contents n e E e and the plasma triple products n e E e τ q . The method is based on fitting the current balance equation on the extracted beam currents of high charge state ions, and using the fitting coefficients to determine the postdictions for the plasma parameters via an optimisation routine. The method has been applied for the charge breeding of injected K+ ions in helium plasma. It is shown that the confinement times of K q+ charge states range from 2. 6 − 0.4 + 0.8 ms to 16. 4 − 6.8 + 18.3 ms increasing with the charge state. The ionisation and charge exchange times for the high charge state ions are 2. 6 − 0.5 + 0.5 ms–12. 6 − 3.2 + 2.6 ms and 3. 7 − 1.6 + 5.0 ms–357. 7 − 242.4 + 406.7 ms, respectively. The plasma energy content is found to be 2 . 5 − 1.8 + 4.3 × 1 0 15 eV cm−3.
The Consecutive Transients (CT) method is used for estimating the characteristic times of ionization, charge exchange and confinement within the plasma of a Charge Breeder Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (CB-ECRIS). The method reveals differences in the characteristic times between different source configurations, with K9+ charge breeding efficiencies of 8.9 % and 20.4 %, and allows qualitative explanation of the improved breeding efficiency. The increase in K9+ efficiency is accompanied by a decrease in ionization time for low charge states, a decrease of charge exchange time for high charge states, and an overall decrease of the ion confinement time, which increases non-linearly with the charge state. The charge exchange time exhibits a minimum near charge state K8+, indicating low neutral density near the plasma core. The CT-method yields a distribution of possible ne and (Ee) corresponding to the spatial distribution of different charge state ions. The results hint at a non-uniform plasma electron density and energy distribution as well as a nested-layer distribution for the ion populations — hot and dense plasma with high charge state ions near the plasma core.
We establish multicomponent 1+ injection into a charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source and an associated computational procedure as a noninvasive probe of the electron density n e , average electron energy E e , and the characteristic times of ionization, charge exchange, and ion confinement of stochastically heated, highly charged plasma. Multicomponent injection allows refining the n e , E e ranges, reducing experimental uncertainty. Na/K injection is presented as a demonstration. The E e and n e of a hydrogen discharge are found to be 600 +600 −300 eV and 8 +8 −3 × 10 11 cm −3 , respectively. The ionization, charge exchange, and confinement times of high charge state alkali ions are on the order of 1 ms-10 ms.
Four models of the PHOENIX ECR charge breeder have been manufactured for ISOL application. Two are currently under operation at TRIUMF (ISAC) and GANIL (SPIRAL 1) while the SPES one is being installed on the facility. The last model is set on the LPSC 1+N+ test bench where a R&D program is ongoing to improve its performances. The last modifications consisted in improving the beam line vacuum and the alignment. Commissioning experiments showed an improvement of the charge breeder performances for all the tested species. The global CB efficiency is close to 100% for Cs when correcting the measurements with the beam transmission. Na and K efficiencies have increased significantly to reach 18.7% for Na8+ and 22.7% for K9+. In parallel, the charge breeder plasma was studied injecting short pulses of 1+ ions and using a zero-dimension model to estimate the plasma parameters. These experiments have provided a better understanding of the performance improvement. The last developments of the LPSC Charge Breeder together with the experimental results are presented.
The consecutive transients (CT) method is a plasma diagnostic technique of charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasmas. It is based on the short-pulse injection of singly charged ions and the measurement of the resulting transients of the extracted multi-charged ion beams. Here, we study the origin of the large uncertainty bounds yielded by the method to reveal avenues to improve its accuracy. We investigate effects of the assumed electron energy distribution (EED) and the uncertainty inherited from the ionization cross section data of K4+–K12+ ions on the resulting plasma electron density ne, average energy ⟨Ee⟩, and the characteristic times of ion confinement τq, electron impact ionization τinzq, and charge exchange τcxq provided by the CT method. The role of the EED was probed with Kappa and double-Maxwellian distributions, the latter resulting in a shift of the ne and ⟨Ee⟩ distributions. The uncertainty of the ionization cross section σq→q+1inz was artificially curtailed to investigate its impact on values and uncertainties of the plasma parameters. It is demonstrated that the hypothetical perfect knowledge of σq→q+1inz significantly reduces the uncertainties of τq, τinzq, and τcxq, which motivates the need for improved cross section data.
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